Main image courtesy of AAMC.

AI continues to make its presence known in all kinds of fields, including healthcare. And while there are a lot of benefits of including AI in everyday tasks to improve diagnoses, create customized patient treatment plans, and ensure that patients are offered the highest level of care, AI can do so much more. One of the major benefits of using AI in a variety of healthcare fields is that it can improve the doctor/patient relationship and help reduce the administrative burden of providers. Ambient listening AI is a tool that lots of practices have been implementing to help reduce clinician burnout and ensure that patients’ medical data is accurate and secure. But how does all this work? That’s why we’re discussing:

• How ambient listening AI functions
• The benefits of ambient medical scribes
• Factors to consider when looking for an ambient listening AI application

How does ambient listening AI work?

Is the technology really there to take medical documentation to the next level?

Chances are you already know a clinician or a practice that utilizes ambient medical scribes, and you want to know a little more about how they actually work. Thankfully, it’s pretty straightforward! An ambient scribe is an application that can be downloaded to any smartphone or tablet. The provider just needs to gain consent of the patient to open the app so it can start listening. The ambient scribe will listen to the conversation in real time, transcribe it, and put the important patient information into the format chosen, typically in note form. This way it creates a concise summary of what took place. The information can also be used to update the patient’s medical record so that the most accurate information is always available to the healthcare team.

Since this all happens during the appointment, typically the note is complete by the time the encounter is over. The provider will then just need to review it for accuracy and ensure that all the pertinent information is included, then approve it. It is then a part of the permanent EHR of the patient.

These devices use advanced algorithms, NLP (natural language processing), and large language models (LLMs) to transcribe the encounter, learning how to filter out information that is not critical for the record, and constantly evolving through each use. 

Not having to worry about typing out what the patient is saying during an encounter is great for both clinicians and their patients. Knowing that the AI scribe is catching all the information allows them to actually focus their attention on the patient, and not have to worry about getting distracted with trying to accurately transcribe what they’re saying. Bringing full attention to the patient’s concerns makes patients feel like the provider is listening to them and taking what they’re saying seriously.

AI medical scribes give providers the peace of mind knowing that the information will be written correctly, and there is much less of a chance that crucial information will be missed, or accidentally left out of the record. Incomplete notes can have serious repercussions for the future wellbeing of patients. This takes a lot of burden off of providers, who either have to enter the note as the encounter progresses, or do after the fact when there’s a higher chance that some information may be missed.

It’s not uncommon for clinicians to need to stay after their shift to complete notes and medical documentation for the day, making long days even longer. This can have a detrimental impact on their job satisfaction, and can eventually lead to burnout.

What are the benefits of using ambient AI scribes?

There are some major pluses to employing an ambient medical scribe in your practice

As you can gather, it’s incredibly easy to use an ambient medical scribe in your practice. Lots of healthcare facilities, from major hospitals to smaller specialized clinics are seeing the benefits of including AI in their practice. It’s important to note that these AI applications are not meant to replace humans, they are simply meant to do the repetitive tasks often required of providers with greater accuracy. A human clinician will always review the note before it is approved to ensure that everything in there is what should be. 

If you’re thinking of potentially including an ambient listening AI into your daily routine, then you should be aware of the benefits.

• Reduction in clinician burnout. Clinicians want to always be at their best for their patients so that they can provide the highest level of care for them. And they can’t exactly do that when they’re feeling run down and burned out from an overload of additional tasks beyond patient care. Although administrative tasks are essential to any practice, why add them to the plate of physicians when an ambient AI application can more easily and accurately do them?

When doctors and other healthcare providers don’t have to worry about ensuring that notes are filled out and EHRs updated, they can turn their focus to providing the best patient care possible. 

• Better patient experience. Ambient listening AI not only has benefits for providers, but for patients as well. In order to have the best experience possible, patients want to feel like their doctor is listening to them, and not just jotting information down. They want to feel like the clinician has the time to really hear them, digest the information, empathize with them, and then let them know possible treatment plans. This doesn’t happen when a provider is stuck entering information into notes.

Using AI medical scribes to accurately transcribe the encounter ensures the healthcare provider can keep their full attention on the patient. It’s obvious to patients when the provider isn’t being present with them, and that can lead to an unsatisfactory relationship and degrade trust. The AI works behind the scenes to ensure no essential information is left out, while the doctor and patient can actually have a conversation and discuss important health matters.

• Improved workflow. AI scribes make it easy to ensure notes are completed and entered into the EHR in a timely manner. This ensures that medication can be prescribed and dispensed, the patient can schedule treatment, and that insurance can be billed properly. When all of this happens in real time, it really can help the healthcare facility run smoothly.

Clinicians can see more patients during their day, which is what many would prefer to do instead of ensuring clerical tasks are completed. All the necessary information is captured during the encounter in real time, so nothing needs to be written up later. AI can even more accurately code the diagnoses and treatments, so they’re ready to be sent to billing with a higher chance that the codes are correct and will be approved.

• Cost savings. Because AI can work all the time, anytime, your practice will likely no longer need to use human medical scribes (if you did choose to use them). The ambient medical scribes are more accurate than humans at charting and coding information, which means the healthcare practice will be paid sooner thanks to proper coding and efficient billing. Allowing AI to take over the tasks previously assigned to humans means that staff and providers can focus more of their energy on accommodating and seeing more patients throughout the day.

• Security and compliance. It’s essential to make sure that sensitive medical data is protected and in compliance with HIPAA. Ambient medical scribes are designed with data compliance in mind, so that the information they’re transcribing safely resides in a secure EHR system. The threat of cyberattacks are very real for healthcare institutions, which means that personal health information must stay appropriately secure and in compliance with security standards. 

• Easy integration. In addition to being a secure way to transcribe notes and update a patients’ medical history, AI scribes are very easy to integrate into your already established EHR management system. This is great news for practices because these systems are often large and complex, and require training to use efficiently. Ambient listening AI apps require very little training, and typically will not disrupt your current system. If you are searching for a new EHR system, there are even some available that offer their own AI medical scribe.

What to consider when searching for an AI medical scribe

Keep these things in mind when researching potential ambient listening AI applications

Healthcare facilities both large and small are adding ambient medical scribes to their toolbelt thanks to all their benefits to both providers and patients. This brings us to the next important point, how to decide which ambient medical scribe you should choose. There are a variety of options out there, which is why it’s important to discuss some of the factors you should consider before adding one to your practice.

1. Secure and compliant

Any ambient medical scribe should be HIPAA compliant so that the personal health information is protected. It’s also recommended that you find an ambient scribe that is also SOC 2 compliant and offers data encryption.

• Playback Health is both HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant and offers full data encryption.

2. Simple and direct

It shouldn’t take days to learn how to use the ambient listening application, and using it should be straightforward. Providers shouldn’t need lots of training, and the application needs to actually save time, not create more work. The notes should only require quick review and minimal edits, and the software should easily pick up and transcribe conversations with minimal errors.

Notes should seamlessly be added to the EHR system, making the most up to date information easily accessible to all team members. No clinician should need to copy/paste information and the workflow of the app should be easy to follow.

3. Customizable

You want the software to work for you and your healthcare team, not the other way around. This means that the information should be formatted the way you want it to, and should include all necessary information in the document fields. Customizing the app to help meet your specific preferences is key.

4. Affordable

Another factor to consider is the cost of the ambient listening AI. Most of these applications are subscription based, and are easy to scale depending on the amount of users you have. AI scribes can cost anywhere between $99-$150 each month, and this cost depends on how often it’s used and the number of users on the plan. A lot of applications offer a free trial or a demo, so make sure to take advantage of those so you can see which program works best for you and your team.

How will you use ambient listening AI in your practice?

Are you ready to harness the power of AI in your practice? If you want to improve patient satisfaction, reduce provider burnout, and streamline clerical tasks, then consider including an ambient listening AI scribe. Playback Health is your go-to for ambient listening scribes that can automate the patient journey, improve documentation, and ensure that team members can seamlessly share information.